Class includes more than 2 million individuals who paid premiums exceeding $700 million
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, PLLC, along with co-counsel Cohen & Malad, LLP, is proud to announce that U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted national class action certification in a lawsuit against Gerber Life Insurance Company.
In a historic ruling delivered orally on Sept. 27, 2024, Judge Karas ruled that plaintiffs who purchased Gerber’s Grow-Up Plan and College Plan may proceed collectively with their claims of fraudulent advertising and misrepresentation. The claim, filed by class representatives Emilie Norman and Josephine Loguidice, seeks damages for all individuals who purchased either plan since April 25, 2014.
The entire class includes more than 2 million people who paid Gerber over $700 million in premiums.
Filed in 2021, the proposed class action claim seeks monetary damages from Gerber Life Insurance Company due to deceptive naming and marketing of the two plans, leading parents and grandparents to believe the plans were affordable ways to build a nest egg for their child or grandchild. The claim contends that these plans lock consumers into a guaranteed loss at best and total loss of their investment at worst, and only provides any net value if a covered child dies.
“In fact, one of Gerber Life’s Grow-Up Plan ads states the plan automatically builds cash value each time you make a payment, building a nest egg for your child’s future,” says J. Gerard Stranch IV, plaintiffs’ co-counsel and founding and managing member of Stranch, Jennings & Garvey (SJ&G). “In actuality, the cash value did not begin to build for at least three years and the primary benefit from the plan was only in the event of the child’s death.”
Consumers who purchased either the Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan policy or Gerber Life College Plan policy since April 25, 2014, are encouraged to contact the class action department of Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, PLLC.